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I Did It: Matthews Forgets His Fans by Bob Lefsetz Prior to the Beatles, you weren't a fan of the band, you were a fan of the RECORD! You'd be driving in your car, punching the AM radio buttons. You'd stumble onto something that was ear-pleasing. You'd hear it at the school dance thereafter. And then you'd forget about it. But with the Beatles, one wanted to KNOW EVERYTHING about them. Where they were born, what they liked to eat, whether they smoked, who they DATED! WHO THEY WERE! What engendered this was the fact that they'd written the TUNES! Think of actors. Even the best. DeNiro. Streep. John Malkovich. You're at a party, and they're sitting on the couch opposite you. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SAY TO THEM? You'll tell DeNiro you liked him in Taxi Driver. Tell Streep you loved her in Sophie's Choice. Tell Malkovich you loved him in Places in the Heart. And after that, you're going to be tongue-tied. You won't know what else to say. For in reality you don't know who these people ARE! You fell in love with the ROLES they played, not their true identities. But imagine sitting across from McCartney. Or Lennon, rest his soul. Sure, you'd tell them too about how you loved their work. But then you'd pepper them with a ZILLION questions, if you could get over your stage fright. What DID "I Am the Walrus" REALLY mean? Did they really sing "I buried Paul" at the end of "Strawberry Fields Forever"? Who was "Every Little Thing" written for? You wouldn't be able to stop yourself. While they were going out the door, you'd want to ask one more. What about...? Imagine sitting in a room with Christina Aguilera. Jessica Simpson. Backstreet Boys. They're not actors; they're from the musical world. But you'd have almost nothing to say to them, either. For all we really know about them is what we read in the tabloids. Who they're sleeping with. Predilections. Quirks. Their music? It's written by somebody else. It gives us no insight whatsoever. Now these pop acts are equivalent to those who came before the Beatles. They released catchy music. But it was devoid of meaning. Soul. Expect self-contained acts to replace these vapid pop stars. If the major labels allow it. If they aren't so busy massaging the material, channeling it, in order to have a hit. I ask you, does someone tell Phish or Widespread Panic to change their tunes? OF COURSE NOT! And they've got RABID fans. You know as well as I do as soon as the hits dry up, no one will want to see Christina. You doubt me? Think about the Spice Girls. What kind of business could they do on the road now? MEANWHILE, acts like Styx and REO Speedwagon, lowest common denominator self-contained rock acts, are selling out sheds DECADES after their last hits. Christina et al. don't really have fans. There's some mania there. But nothing to truly hold onto. You need something to hold onto. That's what the Dave Matthews Band provided. An identity. A CULTURE! To be Dave's fan was a badge of honor. You were INITIATED. By going to a gig. Then you were IN. You had to go to multiple gigs. Buy all the authorized CDs. Trade the live tapes. You were a FAN! You wanted to know everything about Dave and his cohorts. They had a really good thing going. But they f*cked it up. They broke rule No. 1. YOU DON'T F*CK WITH THE FANS! You must play to your CORE! Sure, you want to spread the word. But not at the expense of your core. Think of marriage. You may have desires for the girl at work. But when you leave your wife, you usually end up nowhere. That girl doesn't really know you. There's a casual attraction. Your wife? She's a FAN! She's not here today, gone tomorrow. That's right, bands and fans are MARRIED! AND THEY LIKE IT THAT WAY! And when you're married, if it's a good marriage, a LASTING marriage, you ACCEPT the other person. Warts and all. Dave Matthews made an album while he was depressed. His depression was evidenced in the music, the lyrics. What's that lyric from the Lillywhite sessions? "Bartender, you see The wine that's drinking me Came from the vine that strung Judas from the devil's tree His roots deep, deep in the ground." Compare those words with those from the opening track of Everyday, "I Did It": "I'm mixing up a bunch of magic stuff A magic mushroom cloud of care A potion that'll rock, the boat will rock And make a bomb of love and blow it up." |
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